Battle of Jijiga

Battle of Jijiga - 1978 (Ogaden War).

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Interesting part of the Cold War.

Im not an expert as I have just started looking at it but it looks like Somalia invaded Ethiopia and were doing quite well but then the Soviets and the Cubans came to the Ethiopians aid. In particular the Soviets operated an air bridge which essentially running 225 transport craft carrying in tanks, artillery and aircraft with a plane landing every 20 minutes 24/7.

Both sides were sending everything into the Ogaden region, even at the expence of leaving other areas poorly defended.

However, the Ethiopians were better armed and outnumbered the Somalians. They captured Harer and then moved onto Jijigi and Dible causing massive losses on the Somalians who had to retreat their entire army because Jijigi and Dible were central to their forward supply lines in Ethiopia.

I'll have to digest what I have sped read so far before commenting any further, but I think this couldwell be revisited to cover the whole of the Ogaden War which essentially covers the same area but has Somalia invading the region and beating the Ethiopians. It was only after the Soviets became involved that the tide turned. The game could probably cover the whole campaign.

The WSLF are key to the Somalian strategy as they were fighting in the region to create an independent state (WSLF stands for Western Somali Liberation Front). After the ethioians retreated and agreed a truced the WSLF continued to fight, but without the Somalian Governments suport.

see Wikipedia

see ACIG

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Units (Ethiopia)

Units (Somalia)